Trent Rockets (TRT) beat Welsh Fire (WEF) by six wickets and grabbed their fourth win in the Hundred. They have also climbed to the top of the points table. Wahab Riaz, making his debut, picked up three wickets in his 10-ball spell to restrict Welsh Fire to 139. The visitors chased down the target with ten balls to spare, thanks to an unbeaten 69-run stand between Samit Patel and captain Lewis Gregory.
Welsh Fire, put to bat first, lost both their openers in the powerplay. Riaz removed Tom Banton, while Luke Wood cleaned up Ian Cockbain for 16. With Ben Duckett and Glenn Phillips looking comfortable in the middle, the stand-in captain perished, trying to up the tempo. Riaz took a catch at long-off to dismiss Duckett.
Leus du Plooy, who came to bat at No. 5, charged down the track to hit Riaz for a six. Phillips, too, made runs in Pakistan pacer’s second set of five. The New Zealand batsman continued to trouble the Trent Rocket bowlers. He scored a four and a six off Steven Mullaney’s third set of five.
The pair managed to find boundaries frequently and rotated the strike well. Phillips reached his half-century before Matthew Carter broke the partnership in the 87th ball. It triggered a collapse as Welsh Fire lost four wickets in the final ten balls. They had to settle for 139.
Trent Rockets’ run-chase started on a shaky note. Matt Milnes removed D’Arcy Short for 7. The new batsman Dawid Malan played his shots and struck successive fours off Qais Ahmad. But the spinner sent the England international back to the pavilion for 20. Trent Rockets lost their third wicket when David Payne ended Mullaney’s little cameo of 11. The franchise was 63/3 in 49 balls, with Alex Hales and Samit Patel at the crease. However, Qais struck again and got the big wicket of Hales.
A few dot balls saw the asking rate climbing. Patel picked up eight runs in the last two balls of Graeme White’s final set of five. He slapped James Neesham for a boundary and two sixes. The Welsh Fire bowlers conceded only eight runs in the next ten deliveries. Trent Rockets needed 33 off 20 balls. Payne conceded 12 runs in his third set of five, and Gregory wrapped up the match after hitting two sixes and a four in Milnes’ final five balls.
WEF 139/8 in 100 balls (G Phillips 50, L du Plooy 30; W Riaz 4/30)
TRT 140/4 in 90 balls (S Patel 46*, A Hales 26; Q Ahmad 2/23)
Player of the Match
With 69 runs needed from 42 balls and Malan and Hales back in the pavilion, Trent Rockets were searching for a match-winner. Samit, who has plenty of T20 experience under his belt, volunteered. He took the spinner White to the cleaners, added 17 runs from the Kiwi all-rounder’s only set of five balls, and took singles in the next few deliveries. Patel scored a six off pacer Payne and let Gregory finish the proceedings at Sophia Gardens.
Top Fantasy XI
W Riaz (120 pts), G Phillips (78 pts), S Patel (63 pts), Q Ahmad (57 pts), S Mullaney (50 pts), L du Plooy (37 pts), D Malan (35 pts), A Hales (33 pts), M Carter (31 pts), M Milnes (30 pts), L Wood (29 pts)
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Parameswaran Sankaranarayanan
Parameswaran Sankaranarayan is a sports enthusiast who has worked in print, website, and other digital platforms. He was part of the editorial team of first-ever Indian football-based website - IndianFootball.com (now defunct) - and passionately follows the latest happenings in world football. During his time as a journalist, he had the opportunity to interact with some of the iconic personalities in Indian sports and witness some memorable moments in Indian football.
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